DIY: Pass F5 turbo v2 initiated

[bibin3210]

:clapping::clapping::clapping:Hats off.......

 

[sachu888]

The most awaited build has started.Thanks Om for detailed pics.It looks very well planed,great finish :clapping:

Regards,
Sachin

 

[nraghunadh]

Great build.....thanks for sharing the pictures.........:clapping:
eagerly waiting for some more finished pics..

Thanks.
Raghu

 

[captrajesh]

Whoa Mishraji it looks beauutifulll. Congratulations on the build. Eagerly awaiting the review.:licklips:

 

[spirovious]

Great work Omishtra, appreciate you sincere efforts.

 

[Hiten]

Excellent work Om. Your hardwork and layout effort shows in the pics. Waiting for reviews.
Regards.

 

[jls001]

@Om: inspiring work, as always :clapping:

Have you switched it on? How are the bias current/voltage and heatsink temperatures looking?

 

[kroyin]

AWESOME space management.
Fire it up ... fire it up

 

[omishra]

Thanks you guys!

@Om: inspiring work, as always :clapping:

Have you switched it on? How are the bias current/voltage and heatsink temperatures looking?

Wiring is started, will be done in next 2 days.

AWESOME space management.
Fire it up ... fire it up

Sure! I have lost enough sleep seeing this material right in front of my eye. Just making it slow and steady progress to avoid any mistake.

 

[Santy]

Anyone has tried F5 with 4 ohm speakers? How it would sound.

 

[omishra]

Anyone has tried F5 with 4 ohm speakers? How it would sound.

Santy, I dont have answer to you question. But today sann and svaze listened this on my setup. They will tell their impressions.

Tried baising 0.6A (300mV across source resistors) per device which was class 40W/ch (average). Each heatsink dissipating 80W.

Finally FM svaze visited and was uncomfortable with heatsink temperature. So reduced it to 275mV. Still this is 0.55A/device and class A ~33W/ch. Each heatsink dissipating 66W. Power supply with 24-0 secondary dropped to 32.6V each rail. Cooked Amplifier with top lead covered for 4 hrs under my study table and found its settled with output offset 5-6mV in each channel. This was to ensure that ambiance too got hot. Heatsinks are passing forever hand touching test.

This is how final wiring looks.

Now this is sann's beauty.

The rectifier board MUR diodes are warmer side and need small heatsink.

Sound impression:
sann and svaze listened to it. They will update here.
I found highs are resolving, prominent yet silky smooth, non fatiguing. Vocals detailed, bass to too good.

Complete dead silent, no hiss no hum. It takes 20 minutes from cold start to show real traits of class A. 1hr to settle minimum dc offset at output. No on-off pop. Power bank is lasting till 4 sec after switch off.

Now, my build is pending

 

[sachu888]

One of the best F5 Turbo build.

Regards,
Sachin

 

[captrajesh]

Lovely looking layout. The trafo has been centrally mounted and tucked neatly under the capacitor banks distributing the weight evenly which makes the amp very stable.

What are the other components in the chain?

 

[sann]

Om, thanks is a small word for all the pains you took to build it, and build it so clean and nice.
Initial sound impression are very good. I will take this beauty home, have loooonngg listening session, and post my views.
Regards, sann

 

[quad]

How swift^H^H^H^H clean thy wiring!! Beautiful build

 

[kroyin]

:clapping::clapping:

Very nice ...is it a step up from what you had??

 

[sann]

Ok, here we are, brought the 20kg monster home, tried to gift it to my wife, asked her to lift it, she couldn't, I insisted - its a gift for you, she said - thanks, but no thanks.

Ok, had a listening session after the dinner, the first thing I noticed that its silent, dead silent and you the feel the clean sound immediately, then strikes the details, they are a plenty, each instrument played in a song is clearly pronounced with amazing energy, so much so that you can pick any instrument and follow it separately, the vocal clarity and weight is such as if it is coming from somewhere very close to you, the bottom end is deep and never gets shadowed by other frequencies.

I also compared it with my Norge power amp by feeding different channels to Norge and F5, but the Norge had more gain than F5, so I compared them by playing in sequence, the Norge sounded a bit mellow / less resolving and less involving may be due to the clarity and instrument separation.

These are my initial impressions of less than a couple of hours session, will listen to different genres of music and post my impressions, but overall I am really happy own such a amp at affordable price.
Regards, sann

 

[omishra]

:clapping::clapping:

Very nice ...is it a step up from what you had??

Thanks, it is certainly.

What are the other components in the chain?

Captain, thanks.

More details on setup.
Sources: TT technics 1200MK2 with shure MM97xe and DIY CNC phono, Maranz CD6003 and some DAC from svaze, FLACS played on laptop, Sony full Analog tuner
Preamp: double decker Pass B1 + LSA with no gain.
IC: nakamichi RCA on OFC RG50 monster cable of 15" length. Last leg was MX RCA cable, speaker cables normal 14 gauge wire with ferrite bids.
Speakers: DIY paper cone drivers BS, DIY GR research XLS Encore. Wharfedale 9.2 BS.
Stands: soundfoundation from HFV GB.

Compared with power amps - DIY Tripath 2022 100+100W, DIY HEXFET class AB 40+40W

Speakers make difference. While all were sounding good, LF reach was more in XLS Encore. Paper cone driver could sound harsh and lost details on same kind of input. But with F5 t all sounded smooth. This exposed my leaving room setup as boomy. There were tiles and glasses adding to reverberation. Then we moved to bedroom where everything was nicely sounding thanks to room.

Gain of this amp is slightly less and no problem with CDP and tuner. But CNC phono was struggled. Even 100% volume could neither saturate speakers nor made us uncomfortable. So need more gain for CNC phono stage. But anyway it won't be issue after my "Pearl 2 phono" build.

While feeding tuner input, still it showed what was lacking in sound of each FM station. On known songs, it clearly depicted what equalisation they are doing. CDP was best, Late Jagjit Singh's breathing evident all over the ghazals.

Tripath Amp sounds clear but sounds electronic or machine made, where F 5 t sounded natural. We could differentiate acoustic equipment over electronic one. Class AB sounds powerful but instrument separation and smoothness is far ahead in F5t.

Also we did not use that P3 trimpot which affects harmonics because in absence of distortion analyser and pure 1KHz source, more setting at one side could lead input JFET failure. This was due to fact that we are operating input jFET in noncoscode configuration on 32.6V rail. So kept my hand away from it.

One more important thing- use Teflon cables otherwise normal cable could loose themselves. This I experienced while biasing where DMM lead were got loose like butter inside chamber.

 

[sachu888]

Gain of this amp is slightly less and no problem with CDP and tuner. But CNC phono was struggled. Even 100% volume could neither saturate speakers nor made us uncomfortable. So need more gain for CNC phono stage. But anyway it won't be issue after my "Pearl 2 phono" build.

Hi Om,
CNC gain is as good as or higher than other Phonostages only Rod Elliot P06 has little more gain than CNC.You may like to add SSP in the chain with some high quality Opamps like OPA627.

Regards,
Sachin

 

[Santy]

Om and Sann
Congratulations for building a solid F5. :clapping:

Is the amp running fairly cool on continuous operation?
I am wondering if a 4 ohm load will make it hotter.
I tested a pair of 4 ohm speakers on my integrated, the heat was not significantly higher, may be 10% more.